Relics

Flower Creek Waterside Pavilion, with its pavilions and curved bridges, warm chambers and lofty terraces, broad lake and green hills.

Though the Chen Clan estate was magnificent and lavish, with servants and maids waiting every few steps, holding pots and serving tea, no one in the main hall had any heart to admire it. Their brows were tightly furrowed, their expressions dark with anger and humiliation.

"The relics left by Heng's father? No, absolutely not!"

At Clan Chief Chen Kuang's question, Chen Zhan, whose back had long since grown stooped, planted his knotted staff against the floor. Anger surfaced on his aged face.

"Standing by while the Mysterious Truth Sect took him up the mountain was already a betrayal by our clan. Now you would take his father's relics without asking and use them to repel our enemies? You shame your forefathers! You shame your forefathers!"

Once Chen Zhan spoke, several clan elders on good terms with him also voiced their objections. Each offered his own opinion, and the formerly stifling hall grew noisy.

"Enough! Stop!"

The veins on Chen Kuang's forehead throbbed wildly. He shouted, and a surge of scorching blood energy erupted from his aged body, silencing the clamor.

"Shame our forefathers? Ridiculous, ridiculous! Did the clan not provide for his comforts, his food and clothing? We aren't even asking him to sacrifice himself for the clan, merely borrowing a few relics left by his father. Yet here you are, Chen Zhan, obstructing us at every turn. What exactly are your intentions?"

Chen Kuang's aged eyes were sharp as he stared coldly at Chen Zhan.

"The clan merely entrusted you with raising Chen Heng back then. He was never formally adopted as your son! Why are you so eager to stick your neck out here?"

"Besides..."

He turned to the other clan elders.

"In the three years since Chen Heng entered the Mysterious Truth Sect, he has never sent us a single letter. Such a coldhearted, ungrateful wretch, and you still speak for him, still consider him one of the Chen Clan? As for him, he probably abandoned this surname in disgust long ago!"

"We did indeed handle things poorly back then. It would only be natural for him to resent us."

One clan elder tried to reason with him. "A young master of standing, reduced to someone else's kept man-that was how the clan wronged him."

"The clan never wronged him. Without our support, how could he have been a young master? I-"

Before Chen Kuang could finish, Chen Zhan interrupted him by slamming his knotted staff against the floor.

"The clan did raise him, but that debt was repaid the moment he went up the mountain, with plenty left over."

Chen Zhan stepped forward. "Do you dare say honestly that after he went up the mountain, you never draped yourself in the Mysterious Truth Sect's tiger skin to profit for yourself? Those estates in West City and those fertile fields outside the city-didn't you obtain them in Heng's name?"

"And wasn't your own arrogance the reason the Mount Yang Daoist took a fancy to Xi and demanded her? You not only struck his Daoist attendant, but even threatened to have the Mysterious Truth Sect dispatch Dao Soldiers to wipe out his Dharma Grounds. Who else can you blame?!"

"..."

Chen Kuang had no answer for a moment. He merely turned his face aside in shame and anger.

Who could have imagined that Yan Zhen would actually die!

The Chen Clan's greatest support and protector had collapsed without warning!

That day, emboldened by drink, he had ruthlessly humiliated the Mount Yang Daoist, with whom he had long been at odds. The sight of the Daoist's face, furious yet afraid to speak, had filled him with delight.

But worldly affairs were ever fickle.

Before long.

When the news of Yan Zhen's death and Chen Heng's punishment finally reached the Rong Kingdom.

The entire Chen Clan was struck speechless.

The Mount Yang Daoist clapped his hands in delight, drank for an entire day and night, and bedded eight women in succession.

After that.

The Mount Yang Daoist not only demanded ten thousand taels of silver and ten chests of pearls and yellow jade from the Chen Clan, but also ordered Clan Chief Chen Kuang to give him his youngest daughter, Chen Xi, as a concubine.

Without the protection of the Mysterious Truth Sect, the Chen Clan had no strength to resist the Mount Yang Daoist. They were teetering on the brink of ruin...

"Ah, Xi, come in."

Facing the disgruntled clan elders, Chen Kuang heaved a heavy sigh and beckoned.

With footsteps so soft they were almost inaudible, a girl of thirteen or fourteen in a pink dress entered through the doorway. Her fair skin looked delicate enough to break at a touch. She was lovely and charming, and her pitiful expression stirred tenderness at first sight.

After her father called her inside, Chen Xi curtsied to the elders through her tears. She stood timidly in the middle of the hall.

"My brothers of the clan, Xi is my youngest daughter, after all. How could I bear to part with her?"

Tears also filled Chen Kuang's eyes. His trembling hand pointed at Chen Xi, as slender and frail as a willow swaying in the wind. "Look how young and innocent she is. If we send her to the Mount Yang Daoist, how could she possibly come back alive?"

"Thirteenth Brother, I know you dislike me. It is all because that fool of a son of mine took it upon himself to propose the scheme that trapped Heng in Yan Zhen's hands. You have hated me ever since."

He glanced at Chen Zhan, then abruptly prostrated himself. "But Xi calls you uncle too. You watched her grow up. Your third brother begs you-save her this once!"

Tears streamed down Chen Kuang's aged face.

Chen Zhan's expression shifted uncertainly.

But before Chen Zhan could answer, an arrogant youth's laughter rang throughout the vast Chen Residence.

"Save her? How? Do you have some other trick left?"

The youth's voice drifted unpredictably, like a ghost. "My father has set his heart on this girl. Who dares defy him? Perhaps once he takes the first prize, I can have a sip of the rich broth too!"

"No!" Chen Kuang's expression changed sharply.

The laughter was so loud, yet none of the household servants or guards reacted at all. Clearly, they had been subdued without a sound, before they could even raise the alarm.

"Thirteenth Brother! Hurry! Your third brother begs you!"

He shouted at Chen Zhan, then leaped down into the hall, hoisted his daughter onto his back, and tried to flee.

But before he could charge out of the hall, a group of yellow-clad men blocked the exit. Their leader, a burly man with a curling beard, sent Chen Kuang flying with a single palm strike, blood spilling from his mouth.

"Damn it... Little Ding, fetch the wooden box from my hidden chamber!"

Seeing this, Chen Zhan hesitated no longer and barked the order.

Behind his seat, a pale-faced, beardless man of thirty nodded. With a mere shift of his toes, he shot out of the hall, too fast even for the burly, bearded man to stop.

"Good! Good!"

Seeing such extraordinary movement from Chen Zhan's guard, Chen Kuang laughed wildly through the blood in his mouth. He carefully set his daughter Chen Xi aside, rallied his strength, and charged back into battle with the burly man.

"Attack! All of you! Hold them until Little Ding returns!"

The other Chen Clan elders roared as well, charging forward to fight the yellow-clad men.

Though their momentum was initially strong, they were ultimately old and frail, their blood energy depleted. In the end, the fearless yellow-clad men pressed them back.

"This is..."

After smashing a yellow-clad man's head with his palm, sending his brains bursting out, Chen Kuang suddenly went weak. Disbelief filled his eyes. "Poison? Such potent poison."

"Exactly. Without that poison, we would have had a hard time strolling right in," the arrogant youth's voice rang out again.

"Despicable! Shameless!"

"Old fool, are you trying to stall until that thing called Little Ding comes to rescue you?"

The youth laughed again.

A sudden sense of dread rose in Chen Kuang's heart. For some inexplicable reason, he looked up. Not far outside the hall lay a flayed, bloody corpse that had appeared without anyone noticing.

The bloody corpse's former features were no longer recognizable, but it still clutched a wooden box.

Inside the box were an ancient book and several strange talismans.

"Little Ding!" Chen Zhan's eyes nearly split with fury.

Chen Kuang felt his vision darken. His hands slowed for an instant, and the burly man swept out a kick that snapped his arm bone and sent him flying. He fell and could no longer rise.

"Hey, cousin, this little wench is tender and fresh."

With another sweep of his hand, the burly man sent an elder who tried to block him flying sideways. The elder's body smashed against the wall into bloody chunks.

He reached out with his fan-sized hand and seized Chen Xi.

"Once you and Uncle have enjoyed her, how about letting me play with her too?"

"You crude oaf only know how to eat people. Who would dare give her to you? No!"

The youth gave another strange, snickering laugh. His voice wandered without a fixed direction. No matter how frantically Chen Zhan searched, he could not locate his true body.

"You little brat are getting less lovable by the day."

The burly man muttered, then looked at the wooden box and talismans in the bloody corpse's arms. "What are those things? Would Uncle be pleased if we brought them to him?"

"Some unorthodox nonsense left by Chen Heng's father. Utterly useless!"

"Oh."

The burly man responded in disappointment.

By now, the outcome of the fight was beyond doubt. It was almost entirely a one-sided slaughter, with only a handful of elders like Chen Zhan still struggling to resist.

"Gurgle... gurgle..."

The burly man swept a bored glance around, then looked at the girl in his hand. Wisps of her fragrance drifted toward him, making his mouth water.

"Unorthodox nonsense left by my father?"

Just then, a voice as gentle and smooth as jade suddenly sounded.

Both sides froze amid their fighting. Far away at the estate gates, two white horses could dimly be seen, each carrying a rider.

"Why have I never heard that my father left any relics?"

The burly man's expression changed. He seemed to realize something and grabbed his broadsword, preparing to throw it.

But his hand had only risen halfway.

A feathered arrow abruptly tore through the air and pierced straight through his skull.

Blood burst out like the pulp and juice of an exploding watermelon. Splattered all over her face and head, Chen Xi stared in shock, unable even to cry.

Sharp arrows pierced the air.

Amid dense, dazzling shadows of arrows, the fleeing yellow-clad men were picked off with effortless ease.

Heads burst open, spilling red and white matter across the ground, filling the air with a foul, bloody stench.

The scene, at once so effortless and so bloody, left Chen Zhan dumbstruck. He looked toward the estate gates, his hands trembling uncontrollably.

"Chen Heng? Have you gone mad! How dare you kill my cousin like that!"

The arrogant youth's voice sounded again. This time, it had lost the leisurely air of a cat playing with a mouse, replaced by a measure of panic.

At the estate gates.

Chen Heng glanced calmly behind him. The Fur-Cloaked Woman, who had followed him all the way, immediately understood. She took a feathered arrow and respectfully handed it to him.

"You hid yourself far too poorly."

Those slender, jade-like fingers, which had played the zither since childhood, easily drew the Six-Stone Bow into a full moon. Yet his hands did not tremble in the slightest, as still as an ancient pool untouched by ripples for ten thousand years.

The Celestial Person drew his bow.

The arrow flashed like lightning.

The bowstring rang out. From atop one of the waterside pavilions, a figure fell with a cry of pain.